Sense & Sensibility, chapter 36: Steele The Spotlight
Actually, it’s much more than a calm—for Lucy Steele, the events of this chapter are nothing less than a triumph. She and her sister continue to charm Lady Middleton, even—and especially—with the addition of the Dashwood sisters, now frequent visitors at the Middletons’ due to Mrs. J’s preoccupation with grandma duties. This puts Lucy and Anne in indirect competition with Elinor and MA, but luckily for the Steeles, Lady Middleton kinda hates having the Dashwood sisters around. Their love of reading (or “satirical” tendencies) intimidates her, and their very presence make her feel like she has to be an engaging hostess. Whereas Lucy and Anne* are free baby-sisters who just want to shower compliments on peoples’ outfits and children. How could you not love them? … she asked sarcastically.
Lady Middleton wouldn’t like me as a guest, either. I would satirize her like there was no tomorrow.
Speaking of petty women who commit to doing the bare minimum only when they think they’re being watched, Fanny Dashwood [pause for boos] gets a rude awakening when an acquaintance invites her sisters-in-law to a party. Because—get this—the friend assumes that Fanny D. is actually on good terms with her relatives. Crazy idea! Now, not only is she “obliged to submit … to the exceedingly great inconvenience of sending her carriage for the Miss Dashwoods, but [she also] must be subject to all the unpleasantness of appearing to treat them with attention.”
Wow, women really did suffer back then, you guys.
Anyway, this whole thing results in Elinor and MA attending a “musical party” and who should show up but the absolute Chad henceforth and always known as Toothpick Bobby, alias Robert Ferrars. Elinor only has her initial impression of Toothpick Bobby and Lucy’s low opinion of the guy to go on, but sometimes in Jane Austen the first impression you get really is the only one you need. So it turns out that Toothpick Bobby really is as pretentious, excessive, and egotistical as the term “coxcomb” implies. Not only does he brag about how much his (public school) education makes him more prepared for life than Edward’s (private education) did, he also brags about helping a rich friend arrange the furniture at her so-called “cottage.” Elinor disagrees with every pompous thing he says, but remains silent because “she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.”
Interestingly, Toothpick Bobby doesn’t seem to dislike Edward, as much as they just seem to be opposites. He really hammers home his opinion that the private education that Edward received (at the behest of their uncle) contributed to his brother’s awkwardness in society. If Austen is trying to say something about the pitfalls of private school, I’m not following. Because I have a feeling that whatever Toothpick Bobby chooses to endorse, we’re not meant to agree with him.
This episode reminds John Dashwood that he has sisters in town, and since Mrs. J seems rather busy at the moment trying to get Mr. Palmer to admit that babies are cute, he ought to invite them to stay with he and Fanny. But of course his quick-thinking wife nixes the idea, claiming that a) it would be an insult to Lady Middleton to take “her visitors … away from her” and b) besides, she’s just about to ask the Steele sisters to stay for awhile. Wow. Have you ever worked this hard to keep your in-laws out of your house? Okay, maybe you have, and there’s no shame in that. But I don’t think it ever backfired on anyone the way it’s gonna on Fanny.
Anne and Lucy, especially the latter, are ecstatic at the news, and apparently not at all concerned about leaving Lady Middleton and her four delightful scamps: “[their] visit to Lady Middleton, which had not before had any precise limits, was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time.” I feel like this transfer of, as one might call it, affection might be trying to telegraph something about the Steeles, but I can’t think of what that might possibly be. After Lucy tells Elinor the great news, Elinor is convinced that Fanny’s “good-will towards [Lucy] arose from something more than merely malice against herself” and that Lucy will soon be accepted as Edward’s fiancée.
Elinor, I’ve never been more happy to say that you are about to be proven very, very wrong.
Join me next time for a tornado of bad decisions.
*It’s important to emphasize just how inappropriate and blabber-mouthy Anne truly is. Right now her main target is MA, who Anne seems to sympathize with as far as the Willoughby drama goes. But between her shallow expressions of pity and rude insistence on knowing the price tag on every article of clothing MA puts on, it’s easy to see why she grates on the Dashwoods’ nerves.
Heck no we’re not meant to agree with Robert Ferrars—Austen’s dad was one of those who boarded students just like Edward. She grew up like Lucy in a house full of young men. I’m sure this private/public debate was an in-joke in her family.
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